Silo.



S. F. F. KNEPLEY.

suo.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 20, 19.16.

Patented De@ 12,1916

E INVENTW WITNESES l Lacasse.

ion.

Y STEPHEN F. F. KNEFLEY, 0F WILLIAIVISPORT, PENNSYLVANII.

SIL.

Specication or Letters Patent.

Patented Dec.. 12, 1916.

Application ledlune 20, 1918. Serial No. 104,726.

vTo all whom it may concern ,certain new and useful improvements inSilos, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has reference to silos, and its object is to provide adoor lock construction of particularly efficient character and toprovide a splice free from objections to splices as heretoforeconstructed..-

ln accordance with the present invention there is provided a door framewith openings therein and in most part similar to door frames as used insilos and the doors themselves may be of usual construction except incertain details to be hereinafter described.

The doorv locks comprise levers carried by the doors on opposite sidesthereof, each lever having` a stem portion and an eye portion onopposite sides of its pivot point, the lever being pivotally carried bythe door, and, furthermore, the door carries la pivoted bail `havingparts traversing the eyes of the levers in such manner that when thebait is lifted the levers are moved to the unlocked position and whenthe bail is lowered they are moved to the locked position, and the bailsthen serve as ladder rungs.

With respect to the sp'lices, the meeting edges are beveled at di'erentangles and are provided with an intermediate spline, the

arrangement being such that the splice is self-draining and at the sametime when the parts are driven together the diderent angles on oppositesides of the spline prevent the commonly experienced diiiculty ofsplitting. kThe invention will be best understood from a considerationof the following detailed description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings forming part of this speciicatiomgwith the furtherunderstanding that while the drawings show a -practical form of theinvention, the latter is not conined'to any strict conformity with theshowing of the drawings, but may be changed and modied so long as suchchanges and modifications come within the scope: of the appended claims.

lin the drawings, Figure 1 is a face view of the door frame of the silowith two of the doors in place. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal centralvertical section of the showing of Fig. Fig. 3 is a section on a largerscale than Figs. 1 and 2, of a bevel lug and a portion of one of thelocking levers. Fig. 4: is a perspective View of the locking, lever asviewed from the face neXt to the door. Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig. 1 with a portion of the bail shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of one of thebeveled lugs. Fig. 7 is anedge view of two meeting portions of sections of a stave showing thesplice.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a door frame consisting ofstiles 1 and lintels 2 after the usual manner of constructing silo doorframes, while back of the lintels are battens 3. The form of door framedescribed provides a series of superposed open ings 4 for access to theinterior of the silo, and adapted v to close these openings are doors 5which may beconstructed of cross strips 6 and upright battens 7, withthe latter Y so spaced as to enter the openings 4 in close relation tothe inner edges ofthe stiles 1. It Will be noted that the doors areconstructed of any suitable material, whether wood, metal, or fibrous orother composition, with the battens 7 when the door 5 is in place aboutHush with the plane of thc front of the door frame. When the door ismade of strips of wood or the like, the battens 7 serve to hold thesestrips together, and stiflen the structure, and tv'hen the door is madeof some suitable composition the battens serve as stiffening members-andin either case they serve as supports for parts to be described. Nearthe top and bottom of each door, the doors being upright inthe installedposition, there is provided abail 8 having angle arms 9 at the ends inturn ending in angle extremities 10 lodged in the battens 7, so that theextremities 10 form pivotal supports with the axis extendingtransversely of the door and the extremities 10 entering the respectivebattens 7 at the facing edges of the battens.

Fivoted to each batten 7 near the upper and lower ends thereof is aiever 11 shown separately in Fig. 4, each lever l1 being secured to arespective batten by a pivot pin or bolt 12 traversing a suitable hole13 through the lever. @ne arm of the lever is in the form of a stem 14Chaving one face 15 beveled, such face being the face toward the door onwhich the lever is secured. The

end of the lever remote from the arm 1t is in ofthe loop16'about'the'eye 17 on .the face of the loop 16 toward the door are beveled .as shown at'18, so that the bail arm 9 may V.extend through theloop 16 at a considerable angle to aline perpendicular to the plane ofThe stern` 14 is of suiicient lengthto override a respective stile 1when the' lever`11 is about horizontal, and thenthe bevel face 15 ispresented toward the stile 1,. To prevent wear of the stile, which is'usually of wood, a metal lug 19 is made. fast to the' stile where itwould otherwise be engaged by the stem 14, and this lug is beveled inconformity with the bevel face 15, so that when the lever"11"`is abouthorizontal 4the beveled tace15 engages the bevelv face of 'the lug 19,

draw the door 5 intol tight engagement with the 'inner faces oftheStiles 1 and lintels 2, the beveled lug 19 being in eect a wedge.

When the doors are lockedin position, the levers 11 are abouthorizontaland project oppositely one from the other, being made inrights and lefts, and the arms 9 of the@ bails 84 extend throughthe eyesI17' at an angle to both the horizontal and vertical, or, in otherwords, in a slanting position. This not only-holds the levers in thelocked position by the weight of the bail, but alsov holds the bail inoutstanding relation to the door with the yoke of the bail suiicientlybelow and far enough from the levers 11 and the outer face of the doorto leave ample foot room, so that the yokes of the bails may be utilizedas ladder rungs, these rungs being so arranged as to occupy positionssimilar to the rungs of the ladder.

When it is desired to release a door, the bails are" lifted, turningabout the axes of the extensions 10 as pivots. The result is that thearms 9 acting on the loops 16 tend to turn the levers on their pivots12, the arms 9 moving lengthwise of the eyes 17 of the loops 16 untilultimately lodgedin the ends of the loops remote from the stem 14. Thiscauses a rocking o f the levers in adirection to move the stems 14 awayfrom the wedge lugs 19 until the extremities of the stems 14 haveapproached sufficiently to clear the inner edges of thestiles 1,whereupon'the door maybe readily moved in a direction toward theinterior of the silo. Each arm 9 close to the extension 10 has a bend orshoulder 20 in which the end of the loop 16 remote from the stern 14lodges when the bail is lifted as far as permitted by the loop. Thisforms a temporary lock preventing the bail from falling of its ownweight and requiring a force purposely applied to move it downwardly toagain lock the door. In the latter condition the bail serves to hold thelevers 11 against accidentalmovement to the unlocked position, becausethe arms 9 between the shoulders 20 and the yoke of the bail has adownward slant.

In silo construction the staves are sometimes spliced together by whatis known as a self-draining splice. In Fig. 7 two sections 21, 22 .of astave are shown. The section 21 has on onAe side of the joining end abevel 23 and 'on the other side a bevel 24, while the section 22' hasmatching bevels 25, 26, respectively. TheA section 22 carries a spline27 and the section 21 is provided with a groove -28 to receive thespline 27. VOrdinarily the bevels 28 and 24 and the matching bevels 25and 26 have a relatively sharp angular slant about that ofthe matchinbevels 24 and 26. The result is that when thus 'clamping or cramping theparts together and serving as a wedge connection to the two-members ofthe usual splice are vdriven tightly together the bevels in the member22 act after the manner of a wedge and frequently split thecorresponding 'end of the section 21. ,With the splice shown in Fig. 7the bevels 23 and 25 are so obtuse as to act similarly to shoulderswithout any tendand 26. At the same time the bevels 23 and 25 have adownward slant in the installed position of the parts which makes thesplice self draining, but avoiding any tendency of splitting when thetwo membersi of the splice are driven firmly together,

The levers are pivoted close to the stiles with the bails engagingthe`levers -at the ends remote from the stiles, wherefore the lockingand clamping ends of the stems 14 of the levers engage the stiles closeto the pivots and the doors may be tightly clamped in place withoutundue stresses on the levers and without the necessity of guards orguides for the levers, so that the structure is to a correspondingextent simplified without sacrificev of strength.

What I claim is 1. In a silo, the combination with a door frame and adoor having battens adjacent to the sides and located on the outer faceof the door, of locking means for the door comprising a bail pivotallymounted at the ends in the battens and extending crosswise of the doorwith the bail movable about an axis crosswise of the door, and lookinglevers door, a bail having angle ends pivoted in the battens on an axistransverse of the door, and levers on opposite sides of the doorpivotally mounted on the battens with each lever having the outer endmovable into overriding relation to the corresponding side of the doorframe, and the inner end on the side of the pivot remotefrom the doorframe being provided with an eye elongated in the direction of thelength of the lever and traversed by a corresponding angle end portionof the bail.

3. ln a silo, a door frame and a door having longitudinally arrangedbattens nealr opposite sides of the door and spaced apart to set withina corresponding part of the door frame, a bail having angle endsentering the battens on an axis transverse of the door, and levers onthe battens at opposite sides of the door, each lever being asubstantially straight structure pivoted intermediately to the battenwith one end movable into overriding relation to the corresponding sideof the door frame and the other end formed with an elongated eyelengthwise of the lever and traversed by the corresponding angle end ofthe lever.

4. In a silo, a door frame and a door having longitudinally arrangedbattens near opposite sides of the door and spaced apart to set within acorresponding part of the door frame, a bail having angle ends enteringthe battens on an axis transverse of the door, and levers on the battensat opposite sides of the door, each lever being a substantially straightstructure pivoted intermediately to the batten with one end movable intooverriding relation to the correspending side of the door frame and theother end formed with an elongated eye lengthwise of lthe lever andtraversed by the corresponding angle end of the lever, the eye in eachlever being wider than the thickness of the bail and having the edgestoward the door expanded or beveled to permit the angle portions of thebail to slant outwardly and downwardly from the door when the levers aresubstantially horizontal.

5. ln -a silo, a door having levers near opposite edges of and spacedfrom the outer face of the door and with their pivotal axessubstantially perpendicular to the outer face of the door, each leverhaving the end on the side of the pivot toward the other lever providedwith a substantially straight longitudinal slot, and a bail having angleends pivoted to the door and extending through the slots in therespective levers.

In testimony whereof I have aiixed my signature in presence of twowitnesses.

STEPHEN F. F. KNEPLEY.

Witnesses:

L. EDMUND GILMORE, ELBERT A. PORTER.

